Is it possible to identify Putin's double by his ears? Media analysed all versions and pointed out "nuances"

This weekend, Kremlin dictator Vladimir Putin made a surprise visit to the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. This has led to conspiracy theories that the Russian leader may be using a team of look-alikes for public appearances.

Critics point to one part of his body in particular - his ears. This was reported by Business Insider.

Petro Andriushchenko, an adviser to the mayor of Mariupol, a captured and destroyed Ukrainian city visited by Putin, wrote on Telegram that "Putin or one of his look-alikes" made a night visit to the occupied region.

While the information about dictatorial look-alikes may seem wild, there is some truth to it. Look-alikes are sometimes used in the international arena - and people can be identified by the size of their ears.

The head of Ukraine's military intelligence, Major General Kyrylo Budanov, has previously said that the Russian leader is using a team of look-alikes to hide the fact that he has lost control in the Kremlin. According to Budanov, the doubles were previously used only in "special cases", but after the large-scale invasion of Ukraine, it became "common practice".

"We know of three people in particular who keep appearing, but we don't know how many there are. They have all had plastic surgery to look the same. The only thing that gives them away is their height. You can see it in the videos and photos. As well as gestures, body language and earlobes, as they are unique to each person," he said.

While Budanov's claims about the use of look-alikes cannot be verified, the use of ears as evidence for forensic purposes has been documented for decades. Since the 1950s, forensic scientists have used ear measurements to identify crime suspects, and in the age of algorithms, ears identified by the Wired app have become a more unique identifier than fingerprints.

Social media users suggested that Putin's double had travelled to Ukraine. They drew these conclusions by focusing on the specific curves of his ear and comparing the sagging of his earlobe with photos from 2006 and 2018.

"When you get older, your ear doesn't change - it just gets bigger, but the proportions stay the same," said Mark Nixon, a computer vision expert at the University of Southampton and a leading researcher in the field of hearing recognition.

Advances in 3D scanning technology make it possible to identify a person even from a fuzzy image by measuring the distance from the lobe to two points on the top edge of the ear with an accuracy of 99.6% in just 0.02 milliseconds.

Early in the morning of March 19, Russia announced Putin's visit to Mariupol and showed an amazing video. The footage showed a man who looked like the Russian dictator from the back driving a car through the city at night.

Later, footage appeared of Putin allegedly walking around the city and "accidentally" running into "residents of Mariupol" who rushed to shake his hand, thanking him "for the victory" and for turning the once flourishing city into a "piece of paradise".

Some of the people involved in the video have already been identified online: they turned out to be collaborators who actually lived in Mariupol. Some of them, people claim, built their "piece of paradise" by looting the bombed-out houses of their neighbours.

Putin's visit to Mariupol could have been prompted by a desire to respond to Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, who has repeatedly visited the frontline and newly de-occupied cities in Ukraine. At the same time, it is possible that instead of the dictator, his double arrived.

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